All aboard
Swiss farmer leads cows to water – and onto a boat

Some cattle have already done four tours of duty on Ufenau. For others it's all new and they feel correspondingly unsure.

Häcki and his 25 helpers fit the chosen cows with bells and halters.

Reto, Josef's son, leads a cow into a trailer. The shore is about 300 metres away.

The adventure begins

The animals are sometimes scared and need to be pulled gently by the halter.

If that doesn't work, it's time to give them a good push.

The cattle are tied to the boat.

Häcki heads to the island.

The journey from Pfäffikon to Ufenau lasts just under ten minutes.

It appears to be a relaxing journey for the animals.

It's a good day to travel - the water is calm.

Poop deck: water isn't the only thing splashing around.

Hitting land.

Disembarking, one by one.

A high-spirited cow heads for the meadow.

Made it!

Mission accomplished: the cows on the meadow, the boat in the boathouse.

This content was published on April 22, 2017 11:00 AMApr 22, 2017 - 11:00

For 29 years, Josef Häcki has been bringing his cows from the “mainland” in Pfäffikon, canton Schwyz, to Ufenau, an island in Lake Zurich, at the beginning of April. They stay on the 11-acre island – the largest in Switzerland that can be reached only by boat – until the end of May.

On Ufenauexternal link the cattle eat on the meadow, so the farmer doesn’t have to do any mowing. It’s paradise for the animals: they eat fresh grass, buttercups and dandelions and they can roam around to their heart’s content.

Häcki rents the island, which is owned by Einsiedeln Abbeyexternal link. He is responsible for the forest, meadows and the reeds. The only animals allowed on Ufenau are heifers – female cows that are at least a year old and have not had a calf – so there is no daily milking.

At the end of May, Häcki gathers his livestock and heads back up the mountain in Graubünden. That’s where they spend the summer, before sailing back to Ufenau in autumn.